Indian Newbuild Goals and Reactor Costs: A Discussion
19/05/12 16:16 Filed in: Nuclear
In December, India announced it would not meet its nuclear newbuild goal. The previous goal was to increase from today’s 4.78 GW to 20 GW by 2020, and then increase that to 63 GW by 2032. Now, according to a government minister’s answer to a question in Parliament Dec 15, India is feeling less ambitious: 14.58 GW by 2020, and 27.48 by 2024. I blogged about it at the time, and have recently been involved in some discussion on the subject. See below: Read More...
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Tapi's a Long-shot: Keep An Eye on India's LNG Terminals
18/05/12 08:46 Filed in: Natural Gas
The papers are filled with news about the Cabinet giving the go-ahead for India to buy gas from Turkmenistan via the Tapi pipeline. Cabinet approval or not, this project is still a long-shot -- and it won’t even bring that much gas to India. The country’s LNG terminal construction boom is much more likely to transform its gas market. Read More...
India to Increase Imports of Iran's Oil?
In response to US pressure to cut its oil imports from Iran, India seems to have announced plans to increase them. Read More...
India's Bad Investment in Syria
India’s investment in Syria -- like its investment in Sudan -- is looking like a foolish move right now. European Union sanctions intended to break the regime in Damascus, which has been killing thousands of its citizens in its battle against an insurgency, have forced cuts in Syrian oil production and blocked exports. Read More...
India Backs Down on South China Sea
13/05/12 08:29 Filed in: Natural Gas | Politics
India’s government-owned ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) looks set to abandon a second oil/gas exploration block offshore Vietnam in the South China Sea, after warnings from China to stay away. Read More...
Parliamentary Committee: Coal India "Passing the Buck" on Coal Shortage
In a recent report, a Parliamentary committee rubbished Coal India’s insistence that the reason it has been unable to get enough coal to the country’s power plants to keep them running was that Indian Railways wasn’t transporting enough coal fast enough. Read More...
Uranium Security Guards Out to Lunch in Maharashtra
11/05/12 10:36 Filed in: Nuclear
Security guards left a truckload of uranium on its way from the Nuclear Fuel Complex in Hyderabad to the Tarapur nuclear plant in Maharashtra on the side of the road unattended for about 45 minutes while they had lunch, according to a May 7 article in the Ahmedabad Mirror. The Department of Atomic energy -- on its spiffy, newly designed website -- issued a a denial. Read More...
India's Failure in Sudan
Sudan says the Heglig oilfield, which last month was captured by the South Sudan army and then recaptured by Sudan’s army, has restarted production. India has a 25% stake in production from Heglig, which it bought as part of an effort to improve its energy security. This investment has not accomplished that goal, instead simply embarrassing New Delhi on the world stage. Read More...
Coal and Gas Shortages Caused About One-Fourth of India's Power Shortage
08/05/12 13:26 Filed in: Power
Indian utilities reported a generation loss of 9 billion units (kilowatt hours) due to the coal shortage and 11 billion units due to the gas shortage in 2011-12, according to a release from the Ministry of Power today. Compare this to the country’s power deficit that year of about 79.3 billion units.
If India’s power plants had had access to adequate fuel, it could, for example, have eliminated the 2011-12 power deficits for Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Chandighar, all of the seven sisters in the Northeast, West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand.
If India’s power plants had had access to adequate fuel, it could, for example, have eliminated the 2011-12 power deficits for Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Chandighar, all of the seven sisters in the Northeast, West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand.
Hillary on Indian Oil Imports and Nuclear Liability
During her visit to Kolkata and New Delhi in recent days, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on India to slash its imports of Iranian oil further, and griped about India’s 2010 nuclear liability law. Details below.
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France's Election, India's Jaitapur Nuclear Project
In France's presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy has been beaten by socialist Francois Hollande, who has pledged to reduce the country's dependence on nuclear energy. This has implications for India's nuclear construction program. Read More...
Domestic Nuclear Vendors Fret Over Liability, Appeal to Prime Minister
05/05/12 11:08 Filed in: Nuclear
India’s program for building new nuclear reactors is lagging, especially because foreign vendors have not signed up to build new plants since the Soviet era. One of the major issues holding back the country’s plans to help slake its energy thirst with nuclear power is the issue of nuclear liability, which an industry group took up with the Singh government again in recent days, according to news reports.
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Government-Reliance Conflict Over Low KG-D6 Output Continues
05/05/12 10:41 Filed in: Natural Gas
The ministry of petroleum and natural gas has reportedly fined Reliance $1 billion for failing to meet its gas output targets. Current output of 27.52 mmscmd is way short of the target of 80 mmscmd, according to The Hindu. Read More...
Coal in Meghalaya: Rat Holes and Reporter Intimidation
05/05/12 09:04 Filed in: Coal
While on a trip to Meghalaya this week, I tried to learn more about the state’s unusual system of coal mining, involving unlicensed “rat hole” mines. Most of what I learned, though, is that the state government doesn’t appreciate it when journalists raise questions about coal mining in their domain. Read More...
India Cuts Iranian Oil Imports: Enough to Avoid US Sanctions?
Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was quoted in an IANS article dated 23 April as saying India has “substantially” reduced the percentage of its oil it is getting from Iran. Here are some charts showing Indian’s oil imports from Iran in absolute terms and as a percentage of its total oil imports. Read More...